This evening on Facebook I saw a builder's ad for a local condo community. It's one of my favorite places to do business, it's practically in our own backyard, and offers single family homes, condos and patio homes.
Now a couple of lessons to be learned from this ad.
If you're going to advertise on Facebook, you need to have someone prepared to follow up with the ensuing questions. Where is the community? Types of condos offered? etc.
So weeks and days later, these questions hadn't been answered.
If I wanted to be a vulture, I probably could swoop in and contact the questioners, and who knows, maybe land them as clients.
And if I were inclined, would those leads be worth chasing?
Would I get a who the bleep are you? We didn't ask you to contact us?
Would I get a "I already have an agent"?
Would I get contacted by the builder regarding poaching leads from their paid ad? It's basically the virtual equivalent of standing outside of a builder's model home and trying to intercept people on their way in, right? Not exactly conducive to building my professional reputation with that builder.
But even if I were inclined to roll the dice and hope I didn't get any of the above, there's still the aspect of screening our potential clients that applies whether we find them on Facebook or from one of our own blog posts.
Is the lead worth chasing?
There can be red flags that a lead isn't an ideal candidate for turning into a client.
Contact information that is intentionally wrong on a website contact form.
A quick glance at a Facebook profile might tell you quite clearly the person isn't someone you want in your life. Nothing but angry, disrespectful posts. Nope, double secret probation for them.
The only Google match for the person asking about a million dollar community is a 17 year old high school student in Philly (yeah, maybe Daddy wants to expand his cheesesteak empire and is sending the kid out to live in style).
The LONG hesitation during a phone call when you ask them if they have an agent. It's a simple yes/no question and if they're thinking about it, there's a good chance they're picking your brain and 2nd cousin Sally Mae is waiting in the wings to write the offer when its time.
You mention a house for sale in the community they called about and get an "I've already seen it", and you know there hasn't been an open house.
The buyers that tell you their last agent stopped having time for them when they wanted to see a home. Go in eyes wide open, it could be legit, or these could be "professional lookers".
And watch out for the buyer that keeps delaying getting their preapproval letter.
Do you have other red flags to add?
Until next Tuesday, just Ask An Ambassador if you need help,
Bill & Liz aka BLiz
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